An insider-dealing ring set up fake phone calls and misleading trades in
attempt to put off anyone investigating their activities, a court heard.

Having gained sensitive information from the print rooms of investment banks, the individuals called their broker on recorded office numbers to discuss trades just minutes after speaking via mobile phones. The prosecution alleged the calls were stage-managed with the parties greeting each other as if they had not spoken earlier and discussing innocent explanations for their trades.

"It was a bluff to throw off suspicion should anyone investigate," Michael Bowes QC, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court. "Occasionally there were sales just before announcements. That too was a bluff."

The apparently innocent phone calls and sales made before shares spiked because of announcements are likely to form a key part of the defence. However, Mr Bowes said he would show the jury emails in which the defendants set out the tactics used to cover up their tracks.

The defendants - Pardip Saini, 39, Paresh Shah, 47, Neten Shah, 49, Bijal Shah, 38, Truptesh Patel, 49, Mitesh Shah, 45, and Ali Mustafa, 31 - are accused of making more than £1m trading on the back of information taken from printing room of JP Morgan Cazenove and UBS.

The ring placed spread bets of up to £500 per point on companies such as Biffa and Reuters just before takeovers were announced.

The prosecution alleged the trades were guided by Ersin and Ali Mustafa, brothers who worked in the printing rooms of JP Morgan Cazenove and UBS respectively. Ersin Mustafa is not on trial in the current case.

The prosecution also said confidential documents relating to takeovers were found on memory sticks belonging to Paresh Shah.

Armed with that information it is alleged that Pardip Sarni used the internet to crack codenames given to takeover targets such as Robson for Reuters then being taken over by Thompson, called Temple. In the other takeover of Biffa by private equity, the bankers used tennis-related names such as Nadal, Federer and Racquet.